Microsoft alum challenges Inslee

James Watkins, a Redmond entrepreneur, on Wednesday announced he would challenge Rep. Jay Inslee, the Democrat from Washington’s 1st Congressional District.

Watkins

“We won’t let professional politicians like Congressman Inslee get away with voting for massive spending, bigger government and less freedom – and then come home and tell voters they’re looking out for us,” Watkins said in a statement. Watkins is running as a Republican.

Watkins, who has an MBA from George Washington University, is a business development consultant for startups and small businesses. He also spent 15 years working for or with Microsoft in a variety of roles.

The 1st Congressional District includes Seattle’s northern suburbs as well as Kirkland and Redmond, Bainbridge Island and much of Kitsap County. Inslee has represented the district since 1999.

The district is designed to be competitive. But Democrat Inslee has won re-election by wide margins since upsetting GOP Rep. Rick White in 1998.

Inslee previously served a term as congressman from the 4th District in Central Washington.

If Watkins is the Republican nominee, 1st District voters will get a clear choice.

Inslee is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He is co-author of the book “Apollo’s Fire,” which argues that new energy sources hold the key to attacking global warming and revitalizing America’s declining manufacturing base.

Inslee is an architect of the climate-energy legislation passed by the House earlier this year.

Watkins takes aim at a key provision of the bill, and questions the motives of its supporters.

“Cap and trade is a terrible bill and bad public policy,” he says on his Web site “It will reduce economic growth, cost millions of jobs and hammer the middle class . . . For what? A potential decrease of 1/10 of one degree Celcius over 100 years . . . “Why the big push to implement a bad bill? Maybe it has something to do with the money to be made by politically connected ‘Carbon Tax Entrepreneurs’ who will trade in newly minted carbon credits and mandated technologies.”